


steel yourself

by demonicneonfishy



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, POV Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, nothing bad to see here folks, other than that this is fine, very brief mention of lykon death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:01:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29984634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonicneonfishy/pseuds/demonicneonfishy
Summary: They have particular rituals they have established over the centuries, for nights when they know they will ride into battle in the morning. Lykon re-ties the strip of leather around his spear shaft after he has sharpened its head. Andromache spends extra time in the stables, caring for their horses. Quýnh counts each of the arrows in her quiver. There is a nervous energy that hangs in the air, even if they do not need to fear injury or death.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19
Collections: The Old Guard Femslash Fortnight





	steel yourself

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: showing intimacy  
> (title taken from the thing impa yells in hyrule warriors age of calamity because the vibes fit)

They do not always get the chance to prepare for battle.

There are times when it catches them off guard. There are others when they spend days preparing: training those who are not fighters but must learn out of necessity, creating what defenses they can, making arrows and sharpening their weapons. 

They have particular rituals they have established over the centuries, for nights when they know they will ride into battle in the morning. Lykon re-ties the strip of leather around his spear shaft after he has sharpened its head. Andromache spends extra time in the stables, caring for their horses. Quýnh counts each of the arrows in her quiver. There is a nervous energy that hangs in the air, even if they do not need to fear injury or death.

Another ritual is this:

In the dark before the dawn, they wake. There is no need for words between any of them. Lykon leaves early to join the others on watch, leaving Andromache and Quýnh in their camp. Andromache cannot stop moving, not until Quýnh beckons her over, patting the space in front of her, and Andromache sits down. Gently, Quýnh runs her fingers through Andromache’s hair, working out the tangles as carefully as she can. Andromache takes a deep breath, closing her eyes, and relaxes.

Until Quýnh pulls slightly too hard, and Andromache yelps in pain. 

“Ow!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Quýnh says, laughing. 

“First you cause me pain, then you  _ laugh _ ?”

That just makes Quýnh laugh even more, and Andromache can’t help laughing too. 

Eventually, they calm down, and Quýnh begins to braid Andromache’s hair, tightly enough to keep it back from her face in battle. They’d started doing this a millennium ago, and the familiarity helps to ground her like nothing else will. When Quýnh is done, they switch places, and it is Andromache’s turn to braid Quýnh’s hair, her fingers brushing the nape of Quýnh’s neck as she gathers up the errant strands. 

“How do you think we will fare?” Quýnh asks.

Andromache considers. They could have better chances, but they have won in worse circumstances. “We can never be certain. But I think we have prepared well.”

Quýnh hums in response, and Andromache finishes in silence.

“It is time,” she says. “We should join Lykon.”

Quýnh nods, and they make their way to where Lykon had gone.

All three of them ride into battle that day. Only two return.

* * *

Since Quýnh returned to them, there is so much that has changed, and so much that has not. Andy is still struggling to navigate this new reality. 

They had held off on going on missions again, but the others had started to get restless. Including Quýnh, who’d told them that she would be okay. Andy had woken Nile and Booker, and left waking Joe up to Nicky, who was awake first, the way he always is before a mission. 

Now, Andy stands in the doorway of their bedroom, watching as Quýnh disassembles and reassembles her gun, the way she’d counted her arrows centuries before. Andy knocks on the doorframe, and Quýnh looks at her over her shoulder, smiling.

It’s moments like this where Andy can’t quite believe that this is real. That they are together again, that Quýnh doesn’t hate her, that she has another chance.

She’d almost lost hope of ever seeing Quýnh again.

The smile fades from Quýnh’s face, replaced with a look of concern. “Are you alright?”

“Fine,” Andy says. She holds up the hair tie she’d borrowed from Nile. “Can I…”

Quýnh smiles again, and Andy crosses the room to sit on the bed behind her.

It’s not the same: Andy brushes Quýnh’s hair instead of working the tangles out with her fingers. The ties she uses to secure the braid are manufactured in a factory instead of whatever strips of cloth they could get their hands on. They sit on a bed instead of the grass beside their campfire.

And yet it is the same: Quýnh still relaxes into Andy’s touch. Quýnh’s hair is still soft like silk, and Andy still marvels at the way it slips through her fingers. The process itself still anchors her. Oh, how she's missed this.

“I can’t do yours anymore,” Quýnh muses. “You cut it all off.”

Andy hums. “Maybe I’ll grow it out again.”

She’d cut it off not long after Quýnh had gone, and preferred to keep it short ever since. 

“You should. You always looked beautiful with long hair.”

“You don’t like it short?” Andy asks teasingly, tying off the end of Quýnh’s braid. 

Quýnh turns around to face her. “I like all of it. But I miss braiding your hair.”

“I’ll think about it. Come on, it’s time to go.”

(Andy grows her hair out again. If only to see Quýnh’s smile.)

**Author's Note:**

> they started doing this because they kept getting blood in their hair and it was just easier to braid it so that happened less  
> -  
> i'm demonicneonfishy on tumblr too if you wanna come say hi!!


End file.
